The good life in rural and urban Senegal: A qualitative and quantitative study
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Date
2021-05-27
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
PLOS ONE
Abstract
Very few studies have analyzed the influence of the environment, rural or urban, on the notion of good life and subjective well-being in sub-Saharan Africa and none, to our knowledge, has combined qualitative and quantitative methodologies for this purpose. The objectives of this interdisciplinary study were: a) to understand the emic representations of the good life in rural and urban Senegal and; b) to compare the levels and determinants of satisfaction with life between these two populations. This study was carried out in Dakar and in a very isolated rural area in the North East of Senegal: the sylvo-pastoral zone of Ferlo. A total of six focus groups were conducted for the qualitative phase, while the quantitative phase was conducted on representative samples of the populations living in Dakar (N = 1000) and Téssékéré (N = 500). Our results indicate that, against all expectations, life satisfaction is better in the Senegalese Ferlo than in the capital, Dakar. This difference may be the joint result of less meaningful social comparisons and a relationship with nature as a source of stress restoration in rural areas. However, the lifeworld of the rural Fulani of the Ferlo is being undermined by global climatic disturbances, which imposes rapid adaptations of pastoralism; otherwise this activity, that is not only subsistence but also identity-based, may disappear
Description
A qualitative and quantitative study. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0252134. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252134
Keywords
Rural areas, Urban environment, Senegal, Qualitative Studies, Towns, Cities, Happiness, Urban Areas, CEA-AGIR, EMIG (l’Ecole des Mines, de l’Industrie et de la Géologie), Emmanuel Cohen, Audrey Bergouignan, Sidy M. Seck, Université Cheikh Anta Diop
Citation
Duboz, P., Macia, E., Diallo, A. H., Cohen, E., Bergouignan, A., & Seck, S. M. (2021). The good life in rural and urban Senegal: A qualitative and quantitative study. Plos one, 16(5), e0252134.